Look's like August for zoo's new garden area

Project cost more than originally budgeted, so the plans were changed.

ROGER BULL

Each spring for a decade, Jacksonville Zoo and Gardens has opened a major new exhibit. Last year, it was Play Park, Giraffe Overlook the year before that and Range of the Jaguar the year before that.

This spring, it was supposed to be the Gardens at Trout River Plaza. And the plans are grand - 12-foot columns topped with 6-foot urns, plants growing up and hanging down.

Spring has firmly arrived and is about to give way to summer. But the plaza is far from ready. It'll still be another three months before the gardens open.

The problem was this: The zoo had the plans for the gardens drawn and budgeted $1.5 million for it. But then the bids started coming in at $2 million and up. So the plans went back to the drawing board.

Some cuts were made, said Bob Chabot, director of horticulture and facilities. Three copper bowl-shaped fountains were eliminated, leaving just one. An arbor was simplified.

Eventually, it was reworked as a $1.8 million compromise. The zoo's board OK'd an additional $300,000 and the work finally began.

Now Chabot is looking at an August opening.

Meanwhile, plans are under way for the next projects. In the fall, Chabot said, the zoo is set to break ground for the Asian garden and komodo dragon exhibit. The garden will feature lotus and koi ponds and a waterfall. The komodo dragon exhibit will feature, of course, the world's largest lizards.

Those two, with a combined cost of about $3 million, will probably open in 2008, Chabot said. And they will eventually lead to the planned Asian exhibit, with the return of tigers to the zoo in 2010.